As a result, 33 Hillsborough schools received a D or an F from the state in 2022-23 — by far the most among Florida’s 67 districts, and more than double its total the year before.

Prior years’ grades are reported in the 2022-23 grade data. I add up the number of D/F school for recent years. Note that 33 D/F schools is not that unusual for Hillsborough.

Source: Florida Department of Education

Hillsborough had 33 D/F-rated schools in 2022-23, twice the number as the previous year.
district_name df_2023 df_2022 df_2019 df_2018 df_2017 df_2016 df_2015
HILLSBOROUGH 33 14 28 33 35 43 46
MIAMI-DADE 5 1 1 5 14 36 63

Together the 33 campuses serve the equivalent of a small city, with 18,000 kids.

I use Florida Department of Education school enrollment data to calculate the total number of students in D/F schools. I join school grades and enrollment using school number.

Source: Florida Department of Education

Number of Hillsborough students by school grade
Grade number_of_students
A 55523
B 36447
C 77131
D/F 17987
I 899

Roughly one in eight teachers at Hillsborough’s A schools had less than three years’ experience in the district, the Times analysis found. At the D and F schools, it was nearly one in three.

We got employee logs from Hillsborough County Public schools from the 2018-19 school year through 2023-24. The logs include the employee’s name, age, role, school and date hired by the district.

Using the employee’s role, I identified instructional staff as anyone teaching an identifiable subject (e.g., Math or English), coaches and counselors.

I used the hire date to determine how long the employee has been with the district.

Teachers at D/F-rated schools are younger and have less experienve, on average.
Grade share_tenue_le3yr share_age_le30yr
Elementary
A 12.8% 10.5%
B 17.9% 12.1%
C 19.1% 15.8%
D/F 29.1% 17.7%
Middle
A 12.4% 7.5%
B 14.7% 7.9%
C 27.1% 15.5%
D/F 39.8% 16.1%

The teachers at D/F schools also have less experience in their school. Roughly three in five teachers at D/F-rated schools have less than three years of experience at their school.

Teachers at D/F-rated are less experienced at their school.
Grade share_at_school_less_than_3yr
Elementary
A 34.1%
B 41.9%
C 46.6%
D/F 58.2%
Middle
A 36.4%
B 36.9%
C 59.4%
D/F 65.1%

Tenure data for the 33 schools:

More than one-third of teachers at D/F schools had been there for less than 3 years.
Share of instructional staff with less than three years at...

Those schools relied on substitute teachers twice as often as A schools during the 2022-23 academic year.

TK

Of the roughly 1,200 notices the school board handled last year, about 20% were at the D and F schools. Together, the schools serve only about 10% of Hillsborough students.

Marlene

In addition, the schools had 19% of the Hillsborough teachers with “alternative certification,” meaning they arrived from other professions and were still in training, according to state records.

Marlene

They had 24% of the teachers who were rated “unsatisfactory” or “needs improvement” in 2021-22.

Marlene

Records show the school hired substitutes for 638 shifts in 2022-23 — more than four times as many as Ballast Point Elementary, an A school in South Tampa with a few more students.

Marlene

CHANGE: Hillsborough schools have become more racially and economically segregated over time

Suggested revision:

Families who opt out of poor-performing schools are more likely to be white, which helps make concentrate Black and Hispanic kids in D and F schools.

White students leave D/F-rated schools at a higher rate than Black students.
df_school share_leave_white share_leave_black share_leave_hisp
FALSE 0.2842912 0.3308218 0.2626966
TRUE 0.5926333 0.3682128 0.3575751

In 2022, Hillsborough was the third most segregated district by income among the 10 largest schools districts. Pasco and Palm Beach were more segregated.

This isn’t a new problem. The district was the second most economically segregated in 2012, behind Palm Beach, among the 10 largest districts.

This finding is robust, using both Florida Department of Education Survey 3 data, and National Center for Education Statistics Common Core Data. I use the raw number of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, excluding the “USDA multiplier.” With the multiplier, Hillsborough is the second most segregated among the 10 largest districts.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core Data; Florida Department of Education

Hillsborough is among the most segregated schools districts in the state, by both race and income.
A higher disparity index value indicates more segregation.
District Race Income
CLAY 0.34 0.58
ST. JOHNS 0.11 0.46
PASCO 0.18 0.44
LEON 0.48 0.41
PALM BEACH 0.46 0.41
WALTON 0.12 0.39
COLLIER 0.49 0.36
MANATEE 0.39 0.36
BREVARD 0.28 0.34
HILLSBOROUGH 0.36 0.34
Race measures the difference between white and non-white students. Income measures the difference between students who qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch and those who do not.
Hillsborough was the third most economically segregated district, among the 10 largest districts.

Records show that Shields, along with Hillsborough’s four other D-graded middle schools, had seven times the number of fights and physical assaults per student as the district’s A-graded middle schools in 2022-23. At the D and F elementary schools, the rate was 7.6 times higher than A schools.

Low-performing schools had more fights and attacks.
Mean number of incidents per 100 students, by school type and 2022-23 baseline grade.
Grade Schools Incidents Incidents Reported to LEO
Elementary
A 68 0.25 0.01
B 44 0.70 0.05
C 108 0.61 0.01
D/F 54 2.16 0.07
Middle
A 32 0.84 0.02
B 18 3.23 0.26
C 46 4.94 0.26
D/F 12 6.12 0.50

25 of the D and F schools had two or more principals in the last seven years. Robles Elementary in Tampa had five.

Marlene

Eisenhower Middle, a large D-graded school in Gibsonton that reported 128 fights to the state in 2022-23, has changed principals five times in the last decade.

Eisenhower reported 128 fights in 2022-23.

Families who are zoned to attend the 33 schools are moving in large numbers to an ever-growing number of magnet and charter schools.